Comprehensive Study on Digital Implementations of Power Supplies Commissioned by
the PSMA Board of Directors and Executed by the PSMA Reliability Committee

Power Electronics are transitioning from analog control to digital control. Power supply designers now need to create and embed software in power supply products.  Moving from power electronics with analog control to power electronics with digital control is a significant transition and the 2019 PSMA Power Supply Software/Firmware Reliability Improvement Report attempts to present key findings related to the challenges and solutions to reliability in the digital control of power electronics.  

"Software reliability is the ability of software to repeatedly perform intended functionality for defined operating conditions over extended periods of time. While the focus here is on software reliability, hardware variations and evolution over time impacts software reliability and legacy software function. High quality software with high reliability requirements is typically implemented following a standards-based regulatory process," noted Brian Zahnstecher, Co-Chair of the PSMA Reliability Committee. Tony O'Brien, Reliability Committee Co-Chair, added "Software engineering best practices are being adopted for digital power electronics control for power supplies to ensure reliability does not suffer with the transition to digital control. Some of the best practices are relatively new, evolving and unfamiliar to the power electronics world."
 
Report Structure
This report examines a wide array of problems and challenges in the field of digitally controlled power supplies, then proceeds through observed and proposed improvements and best practices. The report includes sections on:

• The typical issues, challenges, and points of failure in digitally controlled power supplies.
• Best practices that are useful for high quality digital power electronics.
• The quality of software in digital power electronic power supplies.
• Guidance on design process improvement, allowing development to move toward best practices; some standards from related and comparable product sectors using processes to achieve high quality software are introduced.
• Various specifications and templates that support best practices and quality.
• Program management and integration of different engineering cultures and tools to create reliable product.
• A range of tests, inspections, types of analysis, plans, and tools that support developing high-quality product.
• Key metrics from both power hardware and software control backgrounds.
• New metrics that might benefit the power supply industry.

A copy of the printed and USB memory drive versions of 2019 PSMA Power Supply Software/Firmware Reliability Improvement Report will been sent to PSMA Regular member companies as a benefit of their membership. Additional copies may be purchased at the member price of $US290. PSMA Affiliate members may also purchase the report for $US290. The report is available to non-members for purchase on the PSMA website (www.psma.com) for the price of $US2490.

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